Pray For Rain
by MidnightRain6593
Summary: "I think a better question would be: Can you really risk it? Of course I could be lying to you, which I'm not, but what if I'm right? Is finding a cure really worth it if you all end up dead, anyway?"
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.**

**A/N: For those of you who follow me on Tumblr, you know I've been pretty hyped up over how the current plot allows for some really great Kennett interaction and even a push and pull between Kol and Bonnie and Shane. And since I'm 95% sure the show would never go that route, here we are.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

She's sitting in the town square, contemplating her life and wondering just what it's come to. How everyone just seems to have stopped caring about each other.

She was watched her Grams get tortured? Who cares? She needs to get her magic back ASAP otherwise she's useless!

Jeremy's slowly spiraling into madness thanks to the hunter's mark? Who cares? Find a way to stop him from killing us (because to hell with everyone else!) so he can complete the hunter's mark and help cure Elena!

Twelve hybrids and Tyler's mom were killed by Klaus? Who cares? Klaus is helping find a cure for Elena!

She nearly killed a girl? Who cares? Just get a grip and get back to work!

It's comical in a way and by comical, she means pathetic.

She loves Elena, she really does. And she knows it's not fair to blame the girl for everything going wrong since they've all made bad decisions. However, she can't help but wonder what would have happened if Elena had never invited either of the Salvatores into their lives.

Bonnie supposes it wouldn't have changed things. Damon still would have mowed everything down in his warpath to try and get to Katherine (and didn't that turn out to be a huge joke?). And even if Stefan or Damon never came to Mystic Falls, it was probably only a matter of time until Katherine realized she had a doppelgänger and tried to sell them out to Klaus and if it hadn't been Katherine, it would have been another vampire.

No matter what, she always ends up here with perpetually_ nothing_ to show for her effort. Not even a fucking thank you and she's not so sure there's any one person she can blame for it except maybe Klaus.

She notices that someone is suddenly looming over her and when she looks up, she recognizes Kol.

"The little Bennett witch," he says softly. He looks amused and Bonnie knows that that doesn't bode well for her.

"What do you want?" she asks flatly. She had meant to sound tough, like she used to when people (namely Damon) went out of their way to bother her. Instead, she just sounds exhausted and, well, she is.

"I think it's about time we have a little chat. Care to join me for a drink?" He gestures to the _Mystic Grille _which lay across the street.

She just gives him an '_you've got to be kidding me' _look, but doesn't respond.

"Come now, Bennett, I'm trying to be polite here, but if I have to be forceful, I will be," Kol responds, retaining his eerily pleasant demeanor.

"If you're trying to intimidate me, stop," Bonnie says flatly. "I've faced down things just as scary as you, if not more."

"Ah, sure, sure…but have you faced them without your powers?"

Her green eyes widen slightly.

"I've been keeping tabs on _everything _that's been happening in this town. I know about Jeremy's little hunter problem, the cure for vampirism, how you're little pathetic little group is trying to find the cure for vampirism…and your lack of magic." He pauses. "Now, if you would like to avoid an ugly scene, then why don't we go have that drink?"

Bonnie resists the urge to smirk. He clearly doesn't know that Bonnie had found a way to practice magic again and she certainly wasn't going to spoil the surprise until she had the opportune moment.

"I'm underage."

"So?"

"So, you don't think that people would be eyeballing me drinking in public in this tiny town where everyone knows everyone? Especially when my father just became mayor?"

He actually rolls his eyes at her. "Please, we both know that no one in this town gives a damn about underage drinking."

She glares at him and lets out a sigh as she stands up and follows him to the _Grille. _

"What do you want to talk about?" she says, ignoring the shot of what she thinks is tequila that is placed in front of her.

"So straightforward and to the point. That's no fun, darling."

"You clearly want something, so _spit it out,_" Bonnie snapped.

"Fine then," he said shortly and suddenly is saccharine disposition is gone and she wonders if she preferred that to this more menacing one. "What I brought you here to talk about was the cure."

"The cure? You mean, the one for vampirism?"

"Yes, the cure for vampirism," he says condescendingly.

"What about it?" She asks, ignoring his tone.

"Don't allow them to have it."

_What?_

"What makes you think I could stop them if I wanted to—which I don't? I magicless, remember?" She asks.

He begins to laugh and it only unnerves her more.

"You honestly don't know do you? Why do you even waste your time helping them, again?" He doesn't wait for her response. "The only way the cure can be unlocked is through a Bennett witch and, while you're not the only Bennett witch out there, you're the most convenient and probably the only one that would even consider it."

"And what if I want them to have the cure?"

His smile widens and his eyes narrow even more. "Don't you know? Everything has a consequence to it, _especially _magic. Haven't you been wondering what the consequence for the cure would be? What the cure would entail?"

Truthfully, she has. She's not stupid and there's no denying that it's suspicious that the cure is apparently heavily buried and it seemed to take so much to get to it. There has to be a reason why a witch would try to keep it out of reach.

"What do you know about Silas?"

"Silas?" She remembers the cautionary tale that Shane once. "What does he have to do with anything?"

He laughs again. "My, they certainly keep you far out of the loop. Getting the cure means releasing Silas."

"What? How would you know that?"

"Your little professor friend told me…right before I killed him, of course."

_He doesn't know that he didn't really kill Shane. Well, at least there's something else going my way. Play along, _she reminds herself, hardening her expression.

Kol leans in even closer to her and she can smell the tequila on his breath. "Trust me, little witch. You do not want Silas on the loose. It would literally be hell on Earth."

"And why should I believe you?" She asks, not changing her expression.

"I think a better question would be: Can you really risk it? Of course I could be lying to you, which I'm not, but what if I'm right? Is finding a cure really worth it if you all end up dead, anyway?"

"Enough of this," Bonnie says. She hops off the bar stool and turns to leave, but Kol grabs onto her wrist. She considers burning his hand, but she's not sure if it's a good idea to let him know she has her magic back yet.

"I mean it, Bonnie, you can't afford to not trust me right now." She notices that this is the first time he's used her name.

"I can't exactly afford to trust you, either," she counters.

"I'm making an effort to stop what will happen in the least messy manner, but I will kill you if I have to," he tells her and she certainly doesn't doubt it for a second.

"Wow. I wish I could say that that's the first time someone's wanted me to trust them and then tells me they'll kill me, but it's actually not," she replies dryly.

"I'm being honest with you," he says in rebuttal. "Which is certainly more than you can say for your so-called friends."

She just glares at him.

"Think about it," he tells her as he suddenly lets go of her wrist. "But don't take too long." He smirks again before picking up the tequila she didn't touch and tosses it back.

And Bonnie leaves the _Mystic Grille _feeling a little more than dumbfounded.

* * *

**A/N: Ugh, I swore to myself I wasn't going to start posting this until I had most of it written so that I could make regular updates. I just got so excited over Kol being back and getting Kennett scenes that I just couldn't resist posting this now. I can't say how close this will stay to canon, but the good news is I have an idea of where I want to take this and the ending is already written.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.**

**A/N: Thanks so much to those who read, reviewed, etc.! I really appreciate it!**

**I'll be straight: This chapter…I don't think I'd call it a filler because I felt that it was necessary, but it's a rehash of 4x11 (with a few extra things) that digs deeper into some character thoughts because, that episode perfectly set up where I've been planning to take this fic, but I feel that it's important to delve into the character's mindsets first.**

**Oh, and before I forget, the title of this fic comes from a Massive Attack song that goes by the same name. I've mostly listen to Massive Attack, Florence+the Machine, and Lana Del Rey while writing this fic, so if you're looking for some music, give it a try! Maybe someday I'll put a fanmix together.**

**Anyway, sorry for the long ass A/N.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Breathe, Bonnie reminds herself. __In and out, in and out._

Meditation is supposed to help her control the Expression magic, yet she feels on edge all the time and she's pretty sure she has reason to be.

Shane assured her that if she could control the Expression magic, then everything would be fine, but Bonnie still has this nagging feeling. And if anything Kol said has even a grain of truth to it, then it seems like she can't exactly trust Shane either.

_What reason has he given you to not trust him? _She asks herself. And the first thing she thinks of is how she almost killed April that night at school. Shane clearly knows how volatile Expression could be and he never gave her a proper warning and it makes her wonder what else he hasn't given her full disclosure on.

"You know, just because your eyes are closed doesn't mean your meditating," he says, his voice cutting through her rampant thoughts. Her eyes snap open to meet his. "Come on, use your breath to calm your nerves," he encourages her.

"So now I can't even meditate right?" Bonnie replies dryly. "What else can I fail at?"

"Bonnie, you didn't fail," he tells her in what she's sure is supposed to be a reassuring tone. To say she didn't find it very reassuring would be an understatement.

"I nearly killed April," she says. She wonders how many times she has to repeat that to Shane before he finally seems to understand it. His flippancy about it is unnerving to her.

_Maybe he's just relieved that he's still alive, _she tries to reason. _Kol is just trying to get you to question things so that he can keep playing whatever sick game he's setting up._

"Almost, Bonnie," he tells her. "Actually killing her would have been failing. You got more like a D-." He has a little smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. Bonnie used to find his easy demeanor comforting and enjoyable, but now…she can't help but feel weary. Cracking jokes about her nearly committing manslaughter aren't amusing.

"This isn't funny!" Bonnie snaps. "All of the sudden I have more power than ever and I can't control it!" She looks down and realizes that she lit a candle. _I can't even control the most basic magic!_

"Bonnie," Shane says calmly, reaching to take her hand. She almost jerks away immediately. "Look at me." She does. "I'm here with you. There's nothing to worry about. You're strong, you're focused. You're in complete control."

And just like that, her worries and fears dissipate instantly. "You're here with me," she finds herself repeating. "I'm in complete control."

The moment is short-lived when Sheriff Forbes suddenly busts through the door, one of her deputies on her heels.

"Bonnie, you need to go," Sheriff Forbes says.

Bonnie just stands up, a bit stunned.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane asks, his calm demeanor suddenly gone.

"We need to ask you a few questions," Sheriff Forbes replies as her deputy handcuffs Shane.

"I'm sure I can answer without the handcuffs," he replies, laughing a bit. It seems like he's always laughing, always enjoying himself even when things are going wrong. "This isn't even your jurisdiction."

_That's Mystic Falls for you. To hell with federal guidelines; we make up our own laws, _Bonnie almost says aloud, but stops herself. No sense in making the situation even worse.

"Wait, why are you doing this?" Bonnie asks. She can't think of a single reason why they would take Shane into custody.

"That's something you need to ask your dad," Sheriff Forbes replies before following her deputy out of the room, leaving a confused Bonnie in her wake.

* * *

Just because he had left the Bennett witch to think some things over didn't mean that he plans on lying still. The witch may be important to everything, but that didn't mean there weren't other key players for him to get out of the way. Like the hunter.

He remembers Rebekah telling him that Jeremy and the eldest Salvatore were currently working on growing the mark at some remote lakehouse.

It doesn't take him long to get there and he can smell blood in the air.

_Seems like Nik's been mass-reproducing vampires again. _

There weren't a lot of places for vampires to hide from the day, making things much easier for him than they already were.

When he finds them, he quickly and efficiently kills every last one of them and grabs a bottle of whiskey and waits for Damon and Jeremy.

It doesn't take them much longer and he enjoys their confusion for a bit before revealing his presence.

"I confess, I did it," he says, striding into the freezer with his bottle of liquor still in hand and an amused smirk on his face. "Sorry about the mess. It was a little too crowded in here. I think it's about time we had a little chat." He shoots back more whiskey. "Care for a drink?" He asks pleasantly, holding the bottle up in offering.

"He's underage and I don't like you," the eldest Salvatore snaps.

If Kol didn't think it beneath him, he'd be rolling his eyes right now.

"You know, with your zeal to find the cure, you risk waking someone very dangerous," he says, choosing to cut straight to the point.

"You mean Silas."

Kol narrows his eyes. "What do you know of him?"

"Nothing. Don't want to. Not our problem," Damon replies with a shrug.

Kol finds that he's half-tempted to just rip out the fool's spleen right then and there. It certainly wouldn't be any great loss to the world. Maybe he'd do that later.

"Isn't it?" He then proceeds to launch into and explanation of how he learned about Silas in the first place. He has a feeling he's just wasting his time with these morons and sure enough, he's right.

"We're not going to call off our search just because you've been told one too many scary stories," Damon replies mockingly.

Kol pushes him out of the way, not deigning to respond to him.

"Jeremy, we were mates in Colorado. You're a smart lad. Why not call off this imbecilic treasure hunt?"

It would be so much easier to have the boy killed, but he knows that he'd have an even more difficult time getting the witch on his side if he did. He remembers how Jeremy would often talk of Bonnie in Denver.

"I don't think so, mate," Jeremy replies dryly, keeping his crossbow pointed at the Original.

_Oh well, _Kol shrugs it off. _Gave it my best shot, I suppose._

"Well, I don't fancy having to deal with the Hunter's Curse for the next century or so...I guess I can just rip off your arms."

Damon bulrushes Kol, giving Jeremy time to get out of there.

_Idiot, _Kol thinks as he easily grabs Damon in a headlock and snaps his neck and lets the body drop to the ground.

_Might as well have a bit of fun with this._

* * *

"You're accusing me of mass murder? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?" Bonnie hears Shane say over the video feed.

"This is Mystic Falls. It's actually one of the least ridiculous things I've heard," Sherriff Forbes replies dryly.

_She's got a point, I guess, _Bonnie thinks. _It still seems a bit far-fetched, though, even for this town._

"He told me that Pastor Young came to him for help," Bonnie says, turning to her father exasperatedly. "He was crazy."

"He was grief-stricken and Shane took advantage of him."

"And convinced him to blow up his house with twelve other council members inside? I don't think so," she replies.

_He can hypnotize people, _a little voice in her head reminded her. _And if it works on witches, then it would be even easier on humans._

She mulls it over for a moment. Shane wouldn't tell someone to kill himself and twelve other people. Would he?

_He didn't exactly warn you that you could easily kill someone with your new powers, _she remembers.

"I've met people like this before, Bonnie," her father says, snapping her out of her reverie. "They're fast-talking, charismatic, and manipulative, and like to prey and the weak-minded."

"You mean like me?" Bonnie asks, a bit of venom in her voice. She almost wants to ask him what he would even know. It's not like he's been around enough to even begin to fathom the things she's been through. "That's why you brought him in."

"We brought him in because of what April Young told us. Rebekah Mikaelson confirmed it. He confessed to her."

"Rebekah Mikaelson?" Bonnie asks in disbelief. "Really? And you're just going to take her word for it? While you've been gone, she's tried to kill my friends." She leaves out how the vampire actually did kill Elena. She knows her dad knows about the presence of vampires in the town, but she's not sure if her dad knows about Elena and Caroline or not. "Also, her brother killed Mrs. Lockwood. She's not exactly what you can call trustworthy."

"Bonnie—"

"I'm going in there," she cuts in, standing up. "Unless you think I'm too weak-minded," she replies before her father gets a chance to protest.

"I think your dad's confused about the format of a parent-teacher conference," Shane says jokingly when she walks into the room.

It bothers her how he doesn't seemed at all concerned about how he's just been accused of mass-murder. She's sure her father and Sherriff Forbes would have no problem locking him up and throwing away the key, fair trial or no.

"According to them, Rebekah says you confessed," Bonnie tells him as she takes a seat across from him. "She's not exactly reliable, though, so…"

He leans forward, his hand scratching his cheek a bit to hid his lip's movement. "You know, she's actually not lying about it."

And Bonnie feels her world begin to crash down around her.

Compelling Salvatore to go after Jeremy had been easy enough, but he knows that he doesn't have much time before Nik finds out.

_And boy, will he be furious, _Kol thinks with a smile.

He knows there's no time to waste, however. His dagger-happy brother would be coming after him soon and Kol plans on collecting all the daggers before then.

He'd also learned some valuable information from Salvatore as well.

It turns out the witch found a way to use magic again and because of it the professor wasn't as dead as he should have been.

He's impressed that the witch had managed to so easily keep the information from him. It's gratifying to know that he was right in thinking she had more intelligence than the others.

_And if she's smart enough to value her life, she'll come around to my way of thinking._

"I asked my father to give us more time," Bonnie says hollowly as she steps back into the interrogation room. She shuts the camera in front of him off. "You can talk."

"You sure about that?" Shane replies pointing up at the camera attached to the ceiling.

"I'm not you. I don't lie." Her face is stony when she sits down across from him again.

"I was always going to tell you," he replies, still remaining calm. For a moment, she envisions herself clawing that stillness off his face. "I was just worried about how you react."

_Are you kidding me? _She wonders. She almost reaches out to slap him across the face.

"Bad. I react bad to murder."

"I'm not a killer, Bonnie. Pastor Young—"

"I already heard this," she interrupts, remaining outwardly stoic. "Skip to the part where you had him massacre nearly a dozen people."

"It wasn't a massacre," he tells her. "It was a necessary ritual to raise Silas to get the cure your friends so desperately want."

Her heart stops for a beat upon a hearing Silas' name. No one ever told her that the cure was with Silas.

_Except Kol, _she remembers. She wonders what else he was right about now. _Damon or Stefan probably knew about raising Silas too and probably didn't even think to tell me._

"If my friends knew that people had to die—" _They wouldn't care. Stefan and Damon would burn the world down for Elena, Elena's to consumed by the sire-bond to even put up an argument against Damon, and Jeremy's hunter instincts are slowly driving him mad._

She starts thinking that maybe Stefan and Damon even knew about Shane orchestrating these massacres.

For a moment, the world seems to spin before her and she feels a rage like never before begin to fill her.

"Silas will bring them back."

"You're crazy," Bonnie replies, shaking her head. She needs to get out of there. _Now._

"I'm not crazy. I'm just passionate," Shane replies, a smile on his face.

"You are full on crazy." She gets up from the table and goes to leave.

"Do you remember our first session? Where you told me how doing magic caused your Grams pain?"

Her hand freezes on the door knob.

"Aren't you curious about what's happening to her right now?" He pauses for dramatic effect. "Wouldn't you want to see here again."

Despite everything in her telling her that he's manipulating her again and she needs to leave and never look back, she finds herself closing the door and turning back towards Shane.

"So, what you're saying is that Silas would bring Grams back from the dead?" She crosses her arms in front of her, digging her nails into them. "Don't play on my guilt, Shane," she says through clenched teeth.

"I'm not playing on anything."

He's still so goddamn calm and it only makes her angrier and angrier.

"You're reckless use of magic—"

"Don't."

"Is the reason those spirits are torturing her on the other side—"

"Don't," she says again.

"Hurting her again and again and again."

"I said don't," she screams. And just like that, the tidal wave of rage comes crashing down and all she can think of his hurting him.

He yells out in pain, a sickening crunching sound emanating from his hand.

"You can't stop, can you?" He asks. "All this power you're feeling…you actually _like _it, don't you?"

She feels her lips twist into a demented smile and before she thinks about it, she has him yelling in pain again.

"Look at yourself, Bonnie," he repeats over and over again like a mantra.

"Bonnie, what are you doing?!" Her father yells, suddenly bursting into the room.

She looks at him and feels a whole new wave of anger. He's never had any problem leaving her to her own devices, so why not now?

"Get out!" She snaps, tossing the glass of water down in front of him and creating a fire to prevent him from entering the room any further.

"You can't reason with her, Mayor. She's lost control."

"Bonnie, baby, baby." She doesn't think she's ever seen her father so afraid and she can't even find it in herself to give a damn about it. "Please…"

His words have no effect on her.

"Do something!" He shouts at Shane desperately.

"Bonnie, look at me," Shane says.

She looks at him.

"Now take a deep breath. I'm right here with you. You are in complete control."

And just like that, she feels the rage leave her.

And she feels utterly empty once again.

* * *

Finding the daggers proves to be simple enough and he wonders if it was even possible for Nik to put them in an even more obvious place. Except, there's one missing. He assumes that Nik probably carries it on his person.

_Ready to dagger one of us at any given moment, _he thinks bitterly.

"Going somewhere?" he hears his sister's voice ask as she comes to stand in front of him. "I would if I were you; Nik's not too pleased right now."

He smiles at her mockingly. "I told him I would touch the kid and I didn't."

He moves to walk past her and stops when he suddenly feels a dagger poking in his back.

He supposes he shouldn't be surprised by it, yet he still can't help but feel at least a little betrayed. He'd come to expect these sorts of things from Nik, but never Bekah.

"You'd really dagger me?" He asks stonily.

"If I do, Damon's compulsion would end," Rebekah tells him.

"And then you'd be no better than Niklaus; daggering siblings the second they don't agree with you," he spits venomously. He decides to go straight for her heartstrings. "Look at what our family's become. Why do you think Eljah won't show his face? He's _disgusted _by us." He pauses. "This cure is ruining us and the damned things hasn't even been found yet."

"This family was ruined long before we learned of the cure," she replies.

He carefully grips the white oak stake in his hand. Rebekah clearly wasn't going to stand down anytime soon and he certainly wasn't going to stand there and wait to be daggered by her.

"Kol!" She gasps in surprise, staring in horror at the stake pointed at her heart.

"I won't let you raise Silas."

Before either can make a move, though, Nik is there, shoving him away from Rebekah and into one of his precious paintings.

"Enough of this foolishness. Put it down, Kol," his older brother says.

Kol may be extremely volatile, but he's certainly no fool. He knows he doesn't stand a chance against both Rebekah and Niklaus and he sure as hell doesn't need to spend yet another century in a box while these idiots bring about the end of the world.

In hindsight, he realizes that he should have counted on his siblings being a bigger problem than he originally thought. It doesn't make any difference, though, because he'll find a way to make up for his miscalculations.

He knows he can't wait any longer for the witch to come to him. He'll give her one more chance and if she still decides to foolishly insist and getting the cure for her "friends", he'll have to dispose of her.

_It'd be such a waste, though._ He quickly shrugs it off, though. _Oh well. Some actions are just necessary._

* * *

Later that night, Bonnie's sitting at _the Grille with her dad. She feels emotionally drained and she has a feeling that it won't go away any time soon._

"I guess I owe you an apology," she tells her dad.

"You don't owe me anything, Bonnie. I didn't want to be right." He pauses as if he's choosing his next words carefully. "I'm going to get you some help."

"What? Why?" Bonnie asks with a frown on her face. Maybe she had gone a bit overboard back in the interrogation room, but she doesn't think it was _that _bad. Not bad enough for her father to want to check her into some sort of magical rehab, anyway.

Her father gives her a look that tells her he's just confused. "Why? Are you kidding me? You lost complete control back there.

"I was angry," Bonnie admits. "But I knew what I was doing the entire time." At least she _thinks _she did. No, she knew. She wanted someone to finally hurt as much as she did.

"Shane said—"

"I thought we just established that we can't trust them," Bonnie interrupts her father. "He _did _orchestrate a mass murder after all."

"I know what I saw!" Her father snaps. Bonnie can't remember the last time he's looked this upset. "I just witnessed my daughter doing dangerous magic! And the fact that you think it's not even a problem convinces me that you do need help."

She wants to say something back. Make a comment about how she's done just fine without anyone help, but something catches her eyes first. She looks over her father's shoulder and sees Kol standing near the doorway. After making brief eye contact with her, he turns and walks out in a clear invitation to follow him.

"Look, Dad," Bonnie says. "I'm really tired, so can I just go home and talk about this tomorrow?"

"Okay," he says. "Let's go."

"I was hoping for some time alone…to think, you know?" It's not technically a lie. She does have a lot of things that she needs to think about. "Besides, we drove our own cars, anyway."

She can tell by her father's expression that he doesn't want to leave her alone for even a second. She feels like she's being treated like someone with a drug problem and it makes her angry.

He left her alone and shipped her off to some relatives after Grams died. He'd left her alone all those times she'd nearly died to save everyone else. _Now _he suddenly chooses to play the part of concerned parent?

"Alright," he says finally, still reluctant. "I have a few loose ends to tie up at the office, but give me a call to let me know you got home safe, okay?"

"Of course, Dad," she replies with a smile that she hopes doesn't look tight or frustrated.

When she finally exits _the Grille, _she sees Kol waiting for her outside, casually leaning up against the brick wall of the building. She slowly approaches him, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Have you given what I've said any thought, darling?" He asks her with that slightly mocking smirk he always seems to wear.

"I'm not saying I trust you," Bonnie says, raising her chin defiantly and looking him right in the eyes. She thinks that she's probably going to end up regretting this later, but at the very least she thinks she should maybe hear him out. Especially if the situation is as drastic as he's making it out to be. "But I want to hear what you know about Silas."

He looks at her and he sees that something in her has changed. He thinks that perhaps the professor foolishly laid all his cards out on the table once again.

There's a deep-seated rage in those big green eyes of hers and it seems like it'll break out like a tidal wave at any moment. He can't wait to see what exactly she does with it.

* * *

**A/N: Like I said, this chapter was more of an in-depth rehash of 4x11, so I'm sorry if it was boring. But the next chapter should be more interesting since there will be a lot of things happening like Elena's not-so-genius plan to kill Kol and Bonnie finding out about Kol compelling Damon to kill Jeremy and confronting Kol about it.**

**The main thing I was trying to get at in this chapter was to show that Bonnie definitely has trust issues now and even some abandonment issues.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this whatsoever.**

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who's been reading, reviewing, etc.! I really appreciate it.**

**Uhm, I don't have much to say this time except that last episode was one big logic fail after another. It's not even that they killed off Kol (well, it is a bit), but it's that they didn't even attempt to make it believable Here's my attempt to fix what happened (with that awesome Kennett twist to it).**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

They end up in Bonnie's car, heading towards her house. She knows if she isn't home when her father comes in, it'll be more trouble than it's worth. Besides, there's a very good chance that someone would have seen her talking to Kol since _the Grille _is such a public place and that would have caused a whole other set of problems.

"You know," he says as he fiddles with her radio. "I think my favorite thing about the modern age is that you can have music any time you want." He grimaces as he comes across a station playing _Call Me Maybe. _"Although, I will say some of the music nowadays is god-awful."

Bonnie snorts and considers making him stay on that station just to bother him. He ends up settling on an indie rock station and the rest of the drive falls into silence.

When they finally reach her place, she silently exits the car and walks up the pathway to her home.

"Not going to invite me in?" Kol asks as she unlocks the front door.

"Nope," she replies flatly, stepping inside to turn on the porch lights before coming back out, slamming the door shut behind her and taking a seat on the wicker couch.

"Not even going to offer me a drink?" He sits down next to her, a little too close for comfort.

"Nope."

"You know, we could at least try to start this venture off more amicably," Kol tells her, a small grin on his face.

Her expression doesn't change. "I've had a long day and my dad will be home any minute, so let's cut to the chase: tell me about Silas and why you're so afraid of him. Other than Shane, you're the only one that really believes he exists."

"Believe me, darling, I'm far from the only one. Ask just about any witch and they'll tell you that Silas needs to stay buried."

"I don't really know any other witches," Bonnie admits. She thinks of her cousin Lucy, the only other witch she's met that hasn't gotten killed. She's smart to stay off the grid. Bonnie can't help but think that it was a bunch of bull when Lucy told her that she belonged right in the middle of things. "They don't exactly last long in this town."

"I've ran with quite a few witches in my time…in fourteenth century Africa, seventeenth century Haiti, and New Orleans at the turn of the century. I've always held witches in the highest regard," he tells her.

She scoffs. "Please. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that come out of a vampire's mouth only to have them nearly get me killed, I'd be rich enough to get away from this hellhole and be on a beach sipping margaritas. Besides, flattery isn't going to get you anywhere with me."

"It's not flattery, Bonnie," he corrects her, still smiling. "It's honesty. Witches can be quite powerful and if even half of the things I've heard about you are true, then it would be stupid of me to try and make an enemy out of you."

Bonnie looks at him and tries not to smirk. It's always nice when someone acknowledges her work.

"Shane once told me the story of Silas," she says, choosing not to respond to that. "Apparently a witch named Qetsiyah helped him find a way to get immortality and when he betrayed her, she buried him alive after killing his lover. Shane ended his tale by saying that he would wreak havoc on the world, but when he talked to me in the interrogation room, he said that Silas would raise the dead."

He looks at her as if he's carefully gauging her. "And does that sound like a good thing to you?" He asks her.

"This town has lost a lot of people," Bonnie tells him. "People that didn't deserve to die."

"You know, according to the Bible, the raising of the dead happens when it's time for the world to come to an end," Kol tells her.

"The Bible?" She asks with a raised eyebrow. She's never really been into religion. She's barely even had time to understand Wicca because of all the disasters in her life. "So, what? Unearthing Silas will cause the Biblical apocalypse?" She can't help but scoff a little at the thought.

"You shouldn't be so skeptical," he tells her. "All religions have at least a grain of truth in them."

"And you would know that how?"

"Because they all have similarities." He leans in closer to her and she can feel his breath on her face. She doesn't move. "The Vikings believed in Ragnarök, meaning "twilight of the gods." Part of it included the dead rising and causing widespread despair. Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrian so many religions believe that with the end of the world comes with the resurrection of the dead."

"Are you trying to convince me that Silas is trying to begin a zombie apocalypse?" She asks, laughing a little bit. The thought is just ridiculous…then again, she's surrounded by vampires and all sorts of other creatures. Maybe it's not so ridiculous.

"I didn't say that, although, I wouldn't rule it out as a possibility. What I am saying is that the dead coming back to life on a massive scale never means something good."

"Okay, so we don't want the dead brought back to life,' Bonnie says a bit exasperated. "Is that really all there is to it?"

He looks at her as if he's searching her for something. "The world's lack so much faith these days."

_Great, now the thousand year old psychopath is going to give me a lecture on faith. Yep, deciding to hear him out was definitely a smart move, Bonnie, _she thinks, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

"And?"

"And faith teaches you what you should fear."

"Look, I get what you're saying about the whole 'dead people coming back to life' thing, I do. It's a valid thing to be freaked out about…except you're a thousand year old walking dead man. _Literally._ So, sorry if I'm skeptical when _you _talk about it."

"Fine, put away the concept of raising the dead and what that could do for a moment and think of Silas himself. What do you think he'll do when he's raised?"

"I don't know," Bonnie snaps. "And apparently neither do you."

"Think of it this way: I spent a century in a coffin and to say that I was angry when Elijah finally brought me back would be an understatement," Kol tells her. "Silas has been buried for over _two-thousand years. _Trust me; he'll have some major pent up rage to release."

"Why are you so eager to save the world?" Bonnie asks with narrowed eyes. "You're not exactly the hero type."

"No, I am not. But why would I want the world to end?" He counters. "I enjoy the world just as it is now and I like living forever even more."

She looks at him silently. His logic is surprisingly sound and for some reason that makes her even more on edge.

"Some things are just better left buried, Bonnie."

* * *

When Caroline had asked her to fill in for her decorating the dance so that the blonde could tend to Tyler, Bonnie hadn't really wanted to. However, she knows that given what's happened to Tyler, he needs Caroline, so she agrees.

Of course, none of her other friends bother to show up, so she's stuck with a handful of other students that she never even talks to.

When Elena calls her, Bonnie is currently waging war against the damn air tank to fill the balloons. She thinks that her fingers may never uncramp from having to tie them all.

"Where are you?" Elena asks.

"Filling in for Caroline at the decade dance prep," she replies. "Where none of you showed up."

"I know, I'm sorry, but Jeremy is under house arrest because Kol is trying to kill him and—"

"Wait, Kol is trying to kill Jeremy?!" Bonnie almost screeches, but quickly calms herself down when people start giving her strange looks. She feels anger begin to boil in her veins at how Kol conveniently left out that bit of information last night.

She quickly ties off one last balloon before leaving the gym. This definitely isn't a conversation that other people need to overhear.

"I'm sorry, I thought I told you…things have just been so crazy," Elena sighed. "Kol wants Jeremy dead so he can't complete his mark and he compelled Damon to kill Jeremy so now Damon has to be locked up in his own basement until we solve this."

"And do you have any plan on how you're going to 'solve this'?" Bonnie asks. She has a feeling that any plan Elena's come up with won't be good.

"I want Jeremy to kill Kol," Elena says.

"You want him to what?!" She really hopes she hasn't heard her friend right.

"If Jeremy kills Kol then Damon's compulsion ends. Plus, all the vampires in his bloodline would die too, completing Jeremy's mark," Elena replies, clearly proud of her plan.

"Wait…you want to pitch Jeremy up against an _Original_?" Bonnie asks dumbfounded. She's used to the foolhardy and even insane plans her friends always come up with (she's always the one who has to come in and fix it for them), but she has a feeling that this one's about to take the cake.

"I know it won't be easy, but I think we can do it if we all work together."

"Okay, let's say by some miracle we succeed and we do kill Kol…what do you propose we do about Klaus and Rebekah?" Bonnie asks. She almost wants to pull the phone away and stare at it in disbelief. "What do you think is going to happen when they find out what you're planning?"

"Klaus wants me to have the cure so he can make his hybrids with my blood. As for Rebekah, I'm having Matt and Stefan working on daggering her," Elena replies, sounding more confident than Bonnie can remember her being in a long time.

"And you think Klaus will be okay with his brother being dead as long as he has your blood to make hybrids?" Saying that Klaus treats his siblings like dirt would be an understatement, but Bonnie's pretty sure that he wouldn't' be okay with Kol being permanently dead. However, she also gets the feeling that she's not going to be able to talk Elena out of this plan and she's not exactly sure what she can do about it.

"Why do you sound like you're so against this, Bonnie?" Elena asks. Bonnie wonders if the accusing tone is just her paranoid imagination.

"I just don't think that you've thought this through all the way, Elena," Bonnie replies, hoping she sounds patient and not like she's having an inner breakdown.

"Of course I have!" Elena replies. She sounds exasperated now. "What other option do we have, Bonnie? We can't keep Damon locked up forever!"

_Why not? _Bonnie almost asks, but she bites her tongue. Thanks to the sire bond, Elena's been more than a little touchy when it came to people being against Damon and that's just an argument that would have to wait till later.

"Look, I'm going to head over to you now, so we can talk about this more," Bonnie says as she walks out of the half-decorated gym, hoping the Caroline doesn't notice that there's only eighty-nine balloons instead of the hundred that were demanded.

"Fine." The tone of Elena's voice let's Bonnie know that she isn't going to change her mind any time soon.

There's the sound of running water and a sudden scream.

"Elena?" Bonnie asks. "Elena?! What's going on?"

"I don't know," the brunette replies, breathing heavily. "I think there's something in the water."

"I'll be at your place as soon as possible," Bonnie says. She has a feeling she knows just who tampered with the water's supply. She hangs up the phone and quickly dials her father.

"What did you do to the town's water supply?" She asks, cutting straight to the chase once her father picks up.

"Vervain."

"You put vervain in the water supply?" She repeats.

"I'm surprised no one's thought about it before," her father says calmly, "But, yes, I did."

"Where did you even get it?" she asks. Last she's checked, Damon and Stefan had control over the town's vervain supply.

"I have my sources. I'm also reinstating a curfew and cancelling all town events."

"There's a dance tonight," Bonnie reminds her father with a frown.

"Not anymore."

"Are you serious?!"

"Honey, I'm trying to protect you; not punish you," he explains. "It's my job to take care if this town now."

She feels anger turning in her stomach and she almost wants to yell at him. He couldn't be bothered to be around for _months_ on end and now he decides to step in? It just isn't okay with her.

"No, Dad, it's _my _job and I've been doing just fine without you getting involved."

"Really?" He replies skeptically. "Do you want me to list off the names of everyone who's died in your senior year alone? Please come home _now. _It's time for a family meeting."

She doesn't respond, clicking her phone off and glaring at it. Her day has just quickly become one giant clusterfuck. She quickly dials Kol's number that she programed in her phone last night.

While it rings, she stands there impatiently tapping her foot. To say she's displeased would be a major understatement.

"Hello, darling," he says cheerfully when he picks up the phone. She has no doubt that if he were standing in front of her, she'd be putting him in a world of hurt right now.

"Elena wants you dead now," she informs him.

"Does she?" He doesn't sound all that concerned.

"Yeah, and I'm sure you know that I know why," Bonnie says through gritted teeth. "I'm curious, what sort of reaction where you expecting from me when I found out that you were trying to kill Jeremy?"

"Hey, I politely asked him to back down from the cure and he wouldn't listen," Kol responds. "He refused, so I decided to take him out of the game."

"No. This isn't how this is going to work. I may not agree my friends right now, but I'm not willing to let you kill or hurt them," she replies adamantly.

"And you think they'd extend the same courtesy to you?" He replies. "May I remind you what the Salvatores did your mother?"

"May I remind you that Elijah was the one who spurred that on in the first place? Look, we can talk in circles about this, but the fact remains that I'm not going to let you start offing my friends, so now I need to fix _your _mess."

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" He almost sounds amused.

"I have an idea," Bonnie says with a sigh. "But you're not going to like it."

"Oh?"

"Give me a dagger and I'll dagger you and then undagger you. It'll end Damon's compulsion and get the Gilberts off of your back…for now at least."

"And you expect me to believe that you'll really undagger me?" He replies skeptically. "I don't think so."

"And do you have a better idea?" She asks, exasperated. "One that doesn't involve any of my friends getting killed and/or maimed?" She adds quickly before he can respond. "Elena wants you dead and what Elena wants, Elena always gets."

"Where are you now?"

"At school. My dad wants me home, so get here quick so we can sort this out."

It takes him less than five minutes to get there and he isn't alone. Next to him stands a tall black man with a solemn look on his face. Bonnie's positive he's a vampire.

"This is Henri," Kol says, gesturing towards him. "An old friend of mine and an insurance policy to make sure you'll undagger me."

Not saying anything, Henri simply gives her a curt nod.

Kol reaches into his jacket and pulls a dagger out along with a small vial of white oak ash. She reaches to take it from him and he suddenly pulls them out of her reach.

"Run me through with your plan first," he tells her.

"Elena wants you dead because your stupid ass decided to go after her brother," she begins. "She's going to try and lure you somewhere and incapacitate you and get the white oak stake from you." She gives him a once-over. "Please tell me you're not actually carrying it on you right now."

"Trust me. It's hidden where no one would ever think to look," he supplies.

"Don't tell me you hid it in a soap dish," Bonnie tells him dryly. Upon the weird look her gives her she tells him, "That's where Damon once hid the moonstone. Anyway, Elena wants to make killing you a group effort, so she's bound to call me to make sure you stay down long enough for Jeremy to stake you, so—"

"And they think you stand a chance against me?" he laughs.

"Care to find out right now?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. He doesn't respond. "Then quit interrupting me."

He still looks amused, but motions for her to continue.

"So, I'm going to tell them that you attacked me right here in the school and while I had you on the ground, I searched you and only found these," she says, gesturing towards the dagger and ashes in his hand.

"And why wouldn't you have used it on my right here?" Kol asks skeptically.

"Because maybe when Elena decides to ambush you, you'll be carrying the stake then. But you won't be, so I'll come in and save everyone's lives by daggering you."

"It's about as solid of a plan as we can come up with right now," Kol says after thinking for a moment. "I've got to admit I'm curious about why you're so eager to save Jeremy, though. From what he told me in Denver, he broke your heart."

She looks at him with narrowed eyes. "You clearly don't have the emotional capacity to understand a damn thing, but what Jeremy did to me doesn't mean I want him dead."

He looks at her as if he's mulling her words over and his lips curl up slightly before he shrugs and says, "Fine. He's still going to be a problem in the future, though."

"_I'll _deal with Jeremy _my _way," Bonnie snaps. He rolls his eyes at her.

"Don't screw up," he says, handing her the dagger and ash.

"Don't kill or maim anyone," she counters, taking them from him. She glances over at Henri who seems amused by the whole exchange, but he still remains silent. It's unnerving.

"Time to give Elena a call…and I better get home to my dad before he blows a gasket," Bonnie says with a sigh. She walks away, hoping that she's doing the right thing.

* * *

_Where the hell is it? _She could have sworn she put her cell phone down on the foyer table when she got home and now she can't find it. And she's searched for it _everywhere._

Her father hadn't been home when she got there and she doesn't have time to wait around from him just because he suddenly decides he wants to act like a parent.

She hears her dad walk in the room as she's putting the couch cushions back in place.

"I need to get to Elena's. Have you seen my phone?" she asks, turning towards him.

He holds up her phone and car keys.

"I told you; we're having a family meeting."

Her jaw drops slightly and she wonders for a moment if this is actually happening at such an inconvenient moment.

"What, have you been reading parenting books or something? We've never had a family meeting. Why now?" Bonnie snaps.

"This has gone on far enough," Rudy says, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Shane told me that you and your magic are a ticking time bomb."

"And _I _told you that he was crazy."

"I lost your mother to witchcraft. I'm not going to stand by and lose you to."

_Maybe you should have actually been around then._ Instead she simply says, "It's my life, not yours."

They're interrupted by Jeremy pounding insistently on the glass of her front door.

"Is Bonnie here?" Jeremy asks when her father opens the door.

"She's busy right now." He tries to slam the door in the younger Gilbert's face, but Jeremy forces his way in anyway.

"It's important," Jeremy states.

"What's going on?" Bonnie asks.

"I've tried calling you like a hundred times! Kol's in our house right now with Elena."

Bonnie knows she certainly doesn't have time to waste with her father right now. She and Kol may have a plan, but she has no doubt that wouldn't hesitate to kill Elena if she pushes him far enough.

She looks at her dad and tells him, "I've got to go."

He steps in front of her. "I said 'no'."

She feels her blood begin to boil again and before she knows what's happening, the light bulb in the lamp next to the door shatters and sparks fly.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Bonnie snaps and steps around her dad. Another figure suddenly blocks the doorway and for a moment she can hardly believe who it is.

"No one's going anywhere," Abby says, looking deadly serious.

"Mom?"

"Abby, please come in," her father says.

Dumbfounded, Bonnie moves out of the way, allowing Abby to step inside the house.

"What are you doing here? Bonnie finally manages to choke out.

"Your father called me," Abby informs her. Bonnie realizes that she looks angry. "Who is this Professor Shane? What has he been teaching you?"

She feels Jeremy's large hand on her shoulder. "Bonnie, we don't have time for this," he hisses.

_He's right. We don't._

"This is a family matter," Rudy snaps at him.

Jeremy looks angry when he faces her father. "My sister is in trouble and we need Bonnie's help."

"My daughter is _done _helping Elena Gilbert," Abby snaps.

Bonnie looks at her mother and she feels that anger begin to rise even more. What right did Abby have to tell her what she does or doesn't do? All the woman's ever done is abandon her time and time again and now she wants to play concerned parent along with Rudy? To hell with that.

"Answer my question, Bonnie," Abby says. "What lies has this professor been feeding you?"

It all happens so quickly that for a moment Bonnie isn't even sure what happens. Jeremy rushes at Abby, a stake aimed directly at her heart. Abby easily catches his arm.

"Jeremy!" Bonnie shouts, putting her body between his and Abby's. "What are you doing? That's my mom!" She takes his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her instead of glaring at Abby. "Jeremy, look at me. Please, calm down. That's my mom," she tells him again. The rage slowly leaves Jeremy's face and she can see an apology written all over it, but she knows that Jeremy needs to get out of here now or the results wouldn't be pretty.

"Go," she tells him, gently pushing him out the door. "I'm right behind you, I promise."

She turns back to her parents and she hopes she can have the quickest "family meeting" in the history of ever.

"You guys wanna talk? Let's talk."

* * *

It's almost comical how Elena Gilbert honestly believes that she can play him for a fool.

Even without Bonnie's forewarning, he still would have been suspicious the second the irritating little doppelganger called him supposedly wanting a truce.

As beneficial as having Bonnie on his side would be, Kol's certainly not above killing Elena or chopping Jeremy's arms off.

It would definitely be more entertaining than simply engaging in small talk and making drinks with Elena.

Playing fool to a bunch of fools is just boring.

* * *

"Dad needs to mind his own business. He had no right to call you here."

"It's not just your father, Bonnie. Witches talk," Abby tells her.

Bonnie wonders exactly which witches would be talking. Last she checked, Abby's vampire status meant she had no connection to the spirits and it's not like there's any other witches around Mystic Falls that would know what's been happening.

"Look, I get that my new way of practicing magic is unconventional," Bonnie tells her mother, trying to remain calm, hoping that she could reason with her parents. "But I have a handle on it. I promise."

"That's not what Shane said," Rudy interjected.

She looks at her father disbelievingly.

"He's sitting in a jail cell, under investigation for large-scale manslaughter and you're just going to take his word for it?!"

"I've warned you about dark magic, Bonnie!" Abby almost yells.

"But it's not dark magic! It's called Expression! And since the spirits decided to cut me off, I needed it to keep using magic. I get that you haven't been around for a while, Abby, but things haven't exactly gotten less deadly in Mystic Falls!" Bonnie snaps back.

Abby looks hurt, but Bonnie can't even bring herself to care. She's got bigger issues to deal with. As she goes to walk out on her parents, she feels a rush of air as Abby suddenly stands behind her.

"I'm sorry, baby, but I'm trying to save you."

Abby's hand covers her face and suddenly everything goes black.

* * *

He's getting impatient.

If Bonnie doesn't show up soon, he might rip the doppelganger's arm off just for the hell of it.

"So we're officially out of gin," Elena calls out to him as she reenters the room, holding a bottle of wine. "But, I _think _this is a good year."

He turns to Elena with narrowed eyes. "I don't believe you, you stupid little girl."

Her eyes widened in horror as Kol lunges for her.

* * *

As Bonnie fights to return to consciousness, she hears her parents quietly talking to each other.

"We're drugging her now?" Rudy asks, clearly not thrilled at the concept.

"We just need to keep her down until I can get some witches here to cleanse her from that poison Shane infected her with," Abby replies. She sounds overly calm for someone that's just knocked out their own daughter.

Upon hearing Abby's plan, Bonnie quickly gets up.

"That's not going to happen," she tells them.

"Bonnie," Abby says searchingly. "We're your parents. We just want to help you."

She looks at them both and she feels her rage swelling up before it suddenly breaks out of her in a massive tidal wave.

"WHAT THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK YOU HAVE ANY SAY IN MY LIFE?" she screams at them. "YOU ABANDONED ME! BOTH OF YOU! AND NOW YOU SUDDENLY CHOOSE TO WALK INTO MY LIFE AND TELL ME HOW TO LIVE IT? IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!"

The mortar and pestle in Abby's hands suddenly crumbles to pieces and crushed herbs rain onto the ground and then Abby suddenly hunches over, crying out in pain.

She didn't mean to hurt Abby, but she feels just like she felt with Shane in that cell. Angry and betrayed and wanting the people who have hurt her to feel some pain.

"I don't belong to you and I sure as hell don't belong to the spirits," she snaps. "I belong to myself."

Bonnie walks out, ignoring her parents' horrified look.

* * *

When Bonnie bursts into the Gilbert home, Elena has Kol pinned against the kitchen counter with a meat cleaver and Jeremy is spraying him with vervain spiked water.

She's almost impressed with how much restraint Kol is showing since she knows for a fact that he could have had Elena and Jeremy dead from the minute he walked in the house. She supposed that means he really is serious about working with her after all.

"Get back!" Bonnie yells as she rushes toward them, dagger in hand. She's not sure how hard or how easy it is to stab someone in the heart, so she throws all her weight behind it and the impact jars her arm suddenly making it feel numb.

She catches Kol's eyes as his skin suddenly turns grey and veins begin to protrude from it.

"How did you…?" Elena asks as his body slumps to the ground..

"I found it on him when he attacked me earlier today," Bonnie explains. "I guess he was planning on using it on Rebekah or something. I would have daggered him right then and there, but I thought that maybe he'd bring the white oak stake with him and you guys would get a clean shot." She turns to Jeremy. "I'm so sorry, I should have given it to you before you left my place, but I was just so flustered by my parents and then…"

"It's fine," Jeremy says. "You still came in and saved us."

Elena bends down and begins checking Kol, rummaging through his jacket, hoping to find the stake on him.

"It's not there." The brunette vampire look genuinely baffled.

"What? Where the hell would he have put it?" Jeremy asks.

"I have no idea, but I'll take care of the body," Bonnie says. "Put him somewhere where no one will find him and wake him like April did with Rebekah."

"I still think we should kill him. It's the quickest, safest way to grow the mark," Elena says, frowning down at Kol's body.

"Elena, we don't know where he put the white oak stake and we have no way of finding that out and the possible fallout from his siblings would be way worse," Bonnie replies adamantly. "I don't have my car, so I'll need to borrow one of yours. I don't want to tell either of you where I plan on putting him because Klaus and Rebekah can compel it out of you. Witches, however, can't be compelled."

Elena frowns, still not happy, but hands Bonnie the keys to her car. Jeremy puts the body in the trunk of Elena's car. She tries her best to ignore the look of longing on his face. She doesn't want to think about what they were right now.

It's not that she hasn't thought about getting back with Jeremy, but…certain hurts just didn't go away. She had given Jeremy everything and in the end it simply hadn't been enough. Maybe things would be different a second time around, but she doesn't know if she really can give her heart to him like that again without always wondering if when he's with her he's thinking of Vicki or Anna and wishing that she was them, but settling for her anyway.

As she drives, she doesn't see Henri anywhere, but she has no doubt that he was following her, making sure that she didn't dump Kol's body off of Wickery Bridge or something.

She drives and drives until she's almost an hour out of town and pulls off into obscure trail into the woods. As she climbs out of the car to open the trunk, Henri comes to stand beside her with a sudden rush of air.

Bonnie looks down at Kol's desiccated body before looking at Henri. It would be so easy to get rid of him and then just dump Kol's body. She wonders if Kol even thought of that.

She reaches down and pulls the dagger out.

"This magic that you've been practicing," Henri says. It's the first time she's heard him speak and she can't place where the faint accent in his voice comes from. "It's extremely dangerous."

"And what would you know about it?" Bonnie asks skeptically with narrowed eyes.

"More than you realize. I used to be a warlock."

Okay, so she hadn't seen that one coming.

"You used to be a warlock?"

He nods once. "In Haiti, in the seventeenth century. Before Kol turned me."

"Wait, you were a warlock and Kol turned you? I thought he respected witches and warlock," she says with a frown.

"He does," Henri replied. "I _wanted_ to be turned."

"Why would a warlock want to be turned into a vampire? Why would you want to be cut off from your magic like that?" She thinks of her mother and how she was after being turned into a vampire. Abby had been miserable over losing her connection to magic and nature.

"Why do you want to remain cut off from the spirits?" he counters.

She looks at him and doesn't say anything. She sure as hell isn't going to launch into an explanation over how the spirits are torturing her dead grandmother with a complete stranger, former warlock or no. "I'm not getting into this with _you. _I don't even know you."

"It's a slippery slope, Miss. Bennett," he says warningly. "And it won't end well for you."

She remembers saying something similar to Jeremy once; how it never ended well for people like her.

"I know it won't," she tells him. "I've never really expected it to."

They stand there in silence as Kol's fingers begin to twitch and start returning to a more normal color.

* * *

**A/N: This was an interesting chapter to write. Obviously, from here on out we're deviating from the show's canon. So, there were some Beremy moments here, but don't worry, this is first and foremost a Kennett fic.**

**What'd you guys think of my OC, Henri? He may not seem like much now, but I promise he will get more fleshed out and become significant later.**

**Also, one more thing I'd like to point out: When I was talking about the different religions and the end of the world, most of those religions don't see the raising of the dead as a bad thing. The only one that did was the Viking mythology. I just find it interesting that so many religions believe that the dead being raised is a part of the end of the world and it fits in well with that the show says about Silas so far.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.**

**A/N: Thanks so much for all who have been reading, reviewing, putting this on their alerts, etc.! I really appreciate it!**

**So, I missed my goal of weekly updates. College just got really busy for me (that's what I get for being an English Education major…it's like the equivalent of being a double major).**

**Also, some of you may know that I've begun a collab fic with abbyli and anne04 called, "maybe i could be your sweetest," (there's a link to it in my profile) so please go check it out! And if you've never read anything by these fabulous ladies, you should also go do that! :)**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Bonnie finds herself wondering how painful it is for the Originals to be undaggered. She thinks it must be very much so because it's obvious that Kol is in pain as he tries to orientate himself and she's ninety-five percent sure he's the type to show no pain.

She glances sideways at Henry, wondering if he'll say anything about her Expression. She wonders if Kol would even care.

Power is power after all.

"No one suspects you yet?" Kol asks her, straightening up and smoothing his clothing. He looks less than thrilled by the hole the dagger has put in his jacket and shirt.

"No. Wasn't that the whole point?" Bonnie replies with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't give a damn either way," Kol replies. "But you must have realized it by now; you can't keep up this charade forever and when the time comes will you really be able to side against your so-called friends?"

She looks at him, almost in disbelief. "Seriously? You're going to ask me this _now_?"

"You didn't answer my question."

She lifts up her chin defiantly at him. "I've made it this far, haven't I?"

He looks down at her with a smirk on his face and she's not sure how to interpret it.

* * *

Her body is filled with tension and her knuckles are nearly bone white from how tightly she is gripping the steering wheel as she drives back to the Gilbert residence.

Bonnie's mind is spinning from the rapid thoughts flinging through it and she knows that she has put herself in a fine mess and she can only keep up the crazy ruse so long.

She's also not foolish enough to think that Kol wouldn't make another attempt on Elena or Jeremy's life.

Either way, she's screwed.

When she finally reaches the Gilbert's, she turns the car off and sits there for a moment. She feels so exhausted…she always feels exhausted. She's not sure she wants to face Elena or Jeremy right now and wonders if they'd come get her if she tried sleeping in the car.

With a hefty sigh, she pulls the keys out of the ignition and slowly slides out of the car and makes her way up to the front porch.

"Your dad keeps calling," Elena says, opening up the front door before Bonnie could even reach it. "He knows you're here and he wants you to come home, but I don't think he's going to come here and try to make you or anything…did something happen, by the way? Jeremy said you were having a fight and that Abby came back and everything."

"It's a long story that I don't really want to talk about," Bonnie replies, stepping inside the house.

"So, where'd you put him?" She hears Damon call from the kitchen. Figures he'd be here the second his compulsion broke.

"The whole point of me being the one to get rid of his body was so that it couldn't be compelled out of anybody else," Bonnie replies rolling her eyes. She turns to Elena, "Look, I'm tired so I'm just going to head up to your room and crash there, okay?"

"Of course," Elena replies with a nod. "You can borrow clothes and stuff too."

"Thanks," Bonnie mutters as she trudges up the stairs. She wonders if Elena even noticed that she wouldn't meet her eyes.

She changes into a pair of sweatpants that are way too long on her and a tank top and curls underneath the covers on the side of the bed that she's always slept on since she started having sleepovers with Elena before for as long as she can remember.

As she closes her eyes, Kol's words ring through her head again.

"_You can't keep up this charade forever."_

* * *

When Bonnie wakes up, she's alone in Elena's room. She thought that maybe her friend would have come up later, but Bonnie guesses that she must have spent the night with Damon.

She feels disgust crawling through her as she thinks about the sire bond.

_Well, the only way to solve that is to get her the cure, _says a little voice in her head.

She sighs and runs a hand through her messy hair before climbing out of Elena's bed.

After pulling her hair back into a messy bun and borrowing more of Elena's clothes she heads down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Morning," Jeremy says with a small smile, handing her a cup of hot coffee.

"Thanks," she replies with a weak smile, accepting it and perching on a stool at the island counter.

Jeremy watches her for a moment and she wonders if he realizes that something's not quite right wither her.

"You look like you've got a lot on your mind," he says, taking a seat next to her.

"I keep thinking about this cure; What Kol said about it," she admits. She knows she's slipping into dangerous territory by talking to Jeremy about this, but who else could she talk to? Everyone else would just immediately dismiss her.

"You don't think what he's saying is true, do you?"

"I don't know," Bonnie replies. And she finds that that's an honest answer. She doesn't really know and the only way to know for sure would be if they went and got the cure, which led to the issue of, "What if it is? What if we get this cure and we do end up unleashing hell on earth?"

Jeremy is silent and Bonnie thinks that she's made a mistake of opening her mouth.

"Do you think we should stop looking for the cure, then?" he asks her.

She gnaws nervously on her bottom lip. "The cure would solve a lot of problems," Bonnie admitted. "But look at how many problems it's already caused. I'm stuck using a form of magic that I can't control, you're now a vampire hunter and you can't control that either and Stefan, Damon, and Klaus keep turning people for you to kill. Hell, Elena just pitted you against Kol last night and look at what almost happened."

It occurs to her that this is the first time she's ever admitted aloud that she doesn't have control over the Expression and she doesn't like it.

Jeremy opens his mouth to say something, but is cut off by the ringing of the phone.

"I guess I should get that," he says, reluctantly getting up.

As he answers the phone, she finds herself staring into the darkness of her coffee, getting lost in her thoughts.

She jumps a little when the phone is suddenly appears next to her face.

"It's your dad," Jeremy says. "I could tell him where to go if you want."

She smiles a little bit at that, but takes the phone from him with a soft thanks. She doesn't really want to deal with her father right now, but she knows she's going to have to face the music sooner or later.

"_You can't keep up the charade forever."_

* * *

"What happened last night can't keep happening, Bonnie," her father tells her the moment she enters the house.

"I know," she replies.

He looks surprised for a moment, clearly expecting her to put up a fight.

"I meant what I said last night, though," she tells him. "You don't get a say in what I do. You haven't been here. You don't know what has happened to me this past year…_you don't know me."_

As she walks up the stairs, her phone beeps, signaling an in incoming text message. When she looks, she sees it's from Kol. It's an address, an apartment number, and a time.

_It's probably a stupid idea to go there, _she thinks. _Especially alone. _She internally debates for a moment before deciding to go. She's strong enough to take him down if she has to.

* * *

Rudy Hopkins is a practical man and he's never had any illusions about himself.

He knows he's not a good father. Not by the faintest stretch of the imagination.

"_You haven't been here…you don't know me."_

As harsh as the words were, they're the truth. He really didn't know the first think about his daughter.

The truth? He didn't know how to face his daughter after Abby left. He didn't know what to say when she kept asking when mommy would be home or how to explain it to her when she asked if mommy left because of her.

So, he threw himself into his work and left Sheila to pick up the pieces even though he always voiced his dislike of his mother-in-law because she was so open about her witchcraft.

Then, when Sheila passed away, he shipped Bonnie off to some relatives to let them deal with it.

He knows he has nothing but poor excuses for his neglectful parenting.

Somehow, he's going to find a way to help his daughter, though, even if it's the last thing he does.

* * *

She hears her dad leave about half an hour before it's time for her to meet with Kol.

_Now or never, Bennett, _she thinks to herself.

The moment she steps out of the house, she is pinned to the side of it by a hand at her throat.

"Where is he?!" Klaus snarls, her faced vamped out and far too close to Bonnie's for comfort.

The witch figures that she must be speaking of Kol.

"Where is he?!" The blonde snarls again when he doesn't receive a response, pulling Bonnie away from the house and slamming her back into it for good measure. She thinks she actually sees stars for a moment.

Bonnie narrows her eyes and lets the magic flow through her. Klaus's grip falters and then he's kneeling in front of Bonnie, clutching his head and growling in pain.

"Let's get one thing straight," Bonnie grits out. "You don't stand a chance against me; none of your family does anymore."

She walks past Klaus, still not letting up on her magic. When she reaches the bottom of the steps, she turns to look back at him, "You might want to remember that I'm the _only _one who knows where he is. If you hurt or kill me or anyone I care about, you'll _never _see him again."

* * *

As she stands in front of the door, she licks her lips and squares her shoulders before raising a small fist to knock.

Kol opens the door before she makes contact with the wood.

She quickly pulls her hand back in surprise before it hits his chest and takes a step back. She feels herself scowling as his ever-present smirk appears.

"Your family is going to be a problem," she says brusquely, brushing past him to enter the apartment.

"They're already a problem," he replies in a dull voice, closing the door and turning to face her.

She looks around his apartment and is a little surprised at how bare it is. It's a simple studio apartment with only a bed, a desk, a table, and a small kitchenette. After seeing the splendor of the Mikaelson mansion, she almost finds it hard to believe that Kol would be staying her. She guesses that it's smart on his part, though. Who would ever think to look for him here?

"Klaus just attacked me because he thinks you're daggered and he thinks I'm the only one who knows where you are."

She sees something like surprise flicker in his brown eyes for the briefest of moments and she wonders if maybe he didn't expect Klaus to actually care about what's happened to him.

"Well, that is the story you chose to come up with."

"Got any plans about what to do with your siblings?"

"Do you have any plans about what you're going to do with your friends?" He counters.

"What? are you actually trying to tell me you care about your family like I care about my friends?" Bonnie asks dryly. Alright, so maybe that was a bit harsh and presumptuous on her part. And maybe the Mikaelson's didn't want each other permanently dead, but she found it hard to believe that they really gave that much of a damn about each other.

"Do you really find that so hard to believe, Bonnie?"

"You tried to kill Rebekah the other night," Bonnie replies flatly.

He doesn't respond, simply giving her a look and she realizes that he never would have done it. Despite being the odd one out and the fact that Klaus has carried him in a box for a century and Rebekah trying to dagger him, he still cares…or at the very least doesn't want to see them dead.

She wonders if that means there's hope for the tattered remains of all her relationships.

She finds herself looking at him as if she's never really seen him before. Despite being one of the most volatile vampires she's ever met, she finds herself starting to see some seemingly human layers and she finds herself wanting to peel away at them just to find out who Kol Mikaelson really is.

That's probably going to end up being a problem too.

She clears her throat awkwardly and asks, "What did you ask me here for?"

"Because your _friends," _he says, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word, "Are still going to be a problem that we'll need to solve."

"Are they?" Bonnie asks. "They can't do anything without me and now that they think you're daggered why bother?" She folds her arms in front of her chest adamantly.

"You can't even tell them that you'll refuse to help them get the cure," he scoffs at her.

"I will." She pauses. "I just need to figure out _how."_

He actually has the balls to laugh in her face. "Please, you don't know how to defy them. The Salvatores killed your mother for that pathetic doppelganger and yet you _still _work for them. Do you really not value yourself at all?"

Okay. Well that hurt. A lot more than she'd ever like to admit.

"Go to hell," she spits venomously and goes to leave. Before she can, however, she finds her back slammed against the door with Kol's hand around her throat.

_Hell with this, _Bonnie thinks. She didn't allow it when Klaus did it and she be damned if she'd allow it again.

She lets the magic flow through her body, breaking the bones in his hand and, instead of focusing on the blood vessels in his brain, she decides to pop every single one in his body.

He immediately drops to the ground, groaning in pain.

He reaches out towards her as she turns on her heels and leaves, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry, this probably wasn't worth waiting two months for, but I need to get the characters up to a certain emotional level before the real action starts. And I know it seems like Kennett took a big step backwards, but trust me when I say it was necessary. Next chapter will definitely pick things up!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.**

**A/N: Thanks so much for those of you who reviewed, favorited, etc.! I really appreciate it!**

**So, I actually meant to update my other fics instead of this one because they seriously need to be updated, but sometimes the inspiration just strikes and you gotta go with it.**

**Oh, and the beginning of this talks about Expression and, as always, the shows mythology on that sucked and wasn't clear, so I played around a little bit with that and more about it will be revealed as the story progresses.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

"Did you know that the little witch has Expression?" Kol asks Henri the next day.

"Of course."

"Yeah, you would know to spot it. Firsthand experience and all."

Henri looks at him, completely unamused by Kol's less than subtle reminders of his less than stellar past.

"I'm assuming she demonstrated her powers for you…or on you," Henri says dryly.

"I had my suspicions, so I pushed her into doing _something._ I right, of course," he says with a shrug. "There is one thing I keep thinking about, though," Kol continues. "How long has she been practicing it? It's had to have been for months now and she's been using it quite a bit, but she hasn't completely lost control and gotten herself killed. At least not yet, anyway. Maybe it's because the triangle hasn't been completed? Or is it something else?"

"It doesn't kill until the triangle is completed and the witch attempts one of the worst violations of nature when the spirits have already disconnected them," Henri explains.

"One of the worst violations…like bringing back the dead. Which is why he wants Silas raised, obviously. She would die before she could even raise one person." Kol pauses, running a thumb across his lower lip. "Still, there's something more to this professor, though. Perhaps I should pay him another visit today…"

"You know I'll try to stop you if you attempt to kill the girl as anything but a last resort," Henri tells him.

"You haven't been a witch in over four hundred years and yet you still feel some sort of misplaced comradery for them," Kol says derisively. "Yes. You'll _try _to stop any nefarious plans I have with_,_" he dismissively waves a hand. "Don't worry. She can more than take care of herself. Besides, I'm sure she can serve some sort of purpose yet."

* * *

She doesn't know what she's thinking when she finds herself outside of Elena's house. It's not like she's expecting to sit down and have a heart to heart about everything that's wrong in her life with the doe-eyes brunette. Yet, here she is outside the Gilbert residence.

With a sigh, Bonnie pulls her keys out of the ignition and exits the car. Elena opens the door up shortly after she rings the bell.

"Hey," Elena says, looking a little surprised to see the witch standing there.

"Hi," Bonnie replied. "I—uhm, I just—" _Pull it together, Bennett, _she tells herself. "Sorry, I've just been a bit weird lately and we haven't hung out in a while and I'm not doing anything so…"

Elena smiles and lets Bonnie in.

"Do you want anything? Coffee? Tea?"

Awkward. All of this feels so awkward. Elena probably doesn't even realize it, but Bonnie feels reduced to nothing more than a guest instead of someone who has practically lived in this house for eighteen years.

"Coffee sounds good," Bonnie says, perching on a chair at the kitchen table. "I could use some caffeine."

"Well, the good news is that I think Jeremy will soon be done completing his mark," Elena says, handing Bonnie a mug before sitting down with her own.

"What? How?"

"Well, since the Kol plan didn't pan out, we're back to square one; getting him vampires to kill," Elena replies. "This time we're doing more contained. Last time, Jeremy and Matt got attacked by a horde of vampires because Klaus got impatient."

"You mean to tell me that you guys are turning people just so Jeremy can kill them?" She thinks her eyes might bug out of her head. It certainly doesn't escape her notice that that bit of information hadn't been revealed to her.

_Where'd you think the vampire had been coming from? _Asks a voice in her head.

She supposes it should have occurred to her sooner that they would do something like this. It doesn't make her any less disturbed, though.

"Well, yeah," Elena said. "I don't like it either, which is why I wanted to kill Kol, but, like I said, since that didn't work out—"

"This has to stop," Bonnie says, interrupting Elena.

The brunette vampire looks at her open-mouthed for a moment before asking, "What?"

"We can't keep doing this."

"Bonnie…"

"No, Elena. Just think about it for a minute! You're letting innocent people get turned into vampires for Jeremy to kill! How is that right?"

Silence.

"Whatever happened to 'this can't be us'?" Bonnie asks much quieter. _Or does that only apply because I hurt one of the Salvatores? _She almost adds, but doesn't.

"I know things are bad right now," Elena says, taking Bonnie's hands in hers. She tries hard not to flinch. She's not sure if it's because of the feeling she always gets when she touches vampires or because she's talking to Elena. "But it'll all be okay. Everything can go back to normal once we get the cure."

_Normal? Normal for who?_

"Bonnie—"

"I said NO!" Bonnie shouts and the windows around her suddenly shatter. Elena gapes at her.

They stand in silence and Bonnie feels like there's an atomic bomb about to be dropped on them. And in a way, she supposes there is.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie says, much calmer this time. "But I can't do this anymore. This cure…it's just not worth it anymore."

"But, Bonnie, we can't do it without you," Elena says. The doe-eyed brunette takes a tentative step towards her, obviously a little nervous around the witch after seeing that involuntary display of magic. "I didn't ask for this! I don't want to be a vampire! It's ruined everything!"

_Caroline didn't ask to be a vampire either. Abby doesn't want to be a vampire any more than you do. They all found a way to deal, so why can't you? _Bonnie almost asks, but she bites her tongue.

"I know. And I'm sorry. I know you're not used to hearing the word 'no'…especially from me, but this time I have to. There's just…there's just too much _everything._ Shane massacred twelve people for this, arranged for Klaus to kill those twelve hybrids, Kol went berserk over this and nearly killed us, and Jeremy is killing innocent people. I just can't do all this anymore."

"Bonnie—"

"I said no." This time Bonnie does her best to make herself consciously aware of her magic so it doesn't literally blow up again.

She quickly leaves, doing her best to ignore the devastated look on Elena's face.

* * *

So showing up at the door of a thousand plus year old vampire who tried to choke her out yesterday probably isn't one of her smarter ideas, but, sad as it is, she doesn't know who else to go to. Everyone else is sure to take Elena's side and she can only do so much on her own.

When she raises her fist to tentatively knock, he opens the door again just like he did last time.

"I must say I wasn't expecting you back so soon." He says it all so pleasantly with a charming smile and everything.

"I told Elena I won't help her get the cure," Bonnie says without preamble.

He grins even more. "Ah, well, I'm sure our perfect little doppelgänger didn't take that too well, did she?"

"Don't," Bonnie says, pushing past him to enter the apartment.

"Oh, please. Why do you even still care? I'm sure you have quite a laundry list of things that have happened to you because of her."

"I also have a laundry list of things that have happened to me because of _you _and _your _family."

"Do you remember Finn? The elder brother of mine your friends killed? They didn't think twice about it. They simply killed him because they thought they could kill Nik that way."

She didn't even realize she'd been angrily pacing until she finds herself coming to a screeching halt at his words.

She remembers Finn, who admittedly wasn't a horrible person. It had been a bit heartbreaking to see how suicidal he was, but she can't deny that it was unsurprising.

When you've spent nine hundred years in a coffin because of family, do you really have anything left?

"Finn wanted to die. He wanted to stop the rest of you," Bonnie replies, not sure what he's trying to get at.

"He had wanted to live," Kol replies.

"What?"

"Finn. He had found a reason to live because of an old love he had thought had been dead. He was sappy and sentimental like that." He licks his lips and steps closer to Bonnie. "He finally decided that he wanted to live and then _your _friends killed him without a second thought."

She didn't know that. She's sure her friends didn't either. But does that mean anything?

There's a lot of things her friend don't know, but there's also lot of things they do know and it doesn't stop them in their path of destruction.

But…Is she any better for being in cahoots with Kol when he's made attempts on Elena and Jeremy's life?

"Why do you care so much about it? He was trying to kill you."

"He was still my older brother." He steps even closer to her. "He was still the older brother who had cared for me, who had been more of a parent to me than my own were."

Her lips part slightly in shock. This whole moment feels surreal to her.

He's revealing things to her, things about his human past. Okay, so it was one miniscule thing, but she's sure he doesn't go around handing tidbits like that to everyone.

She's never really thought about what he might have been like as a human. But why would she? It's not like she's ever dwelt on what Stefan or Damon were like when they were human. She's never had any reason to.

He's so close that she can feel his breath on her face and for a wild moment she thinks he's actually going to kiss. For a moment she thinks that she would actually let him.

Then she suddenly remembers that he literally tried to choke her out yesterday and she concludes that she probably really has lost her mind just like everyone else around her has.

Then it occurs to her exactly what he's doing. The same thing he attempted to do last nice.

He's putting on a façade of caring about his family, trying to humanize himself to make her sympathize with him.

He's trying to use her compassion in his own favor just like everyone else does.

She almost wants to tell him that playing the family issues card is so old. Literally none of her friends have a picture perfect family, so why would she care if some psychopathic Original wants to get sentimental over what once was?

_Maybe because you want to go back to how things used to be, _a little voice says in her head.

"You can stop now," she says, stepping away from him. "You don't have to prove to me that my friends have poor judgment or that they're not always the good guys. I wouldn't be here if I didn't already know that myself."

He hums and his lips twist slightly back into a smirk, but he doesn't say anything.

"I'm sure Elena will take no time in telling them what I just told her and I'm sure they'll all try to convince me otherwise. Klaus is going to be the major problem, though. Elena has some freaky alliance going on with him to get the cure, which means he's going to try to force me to help in ways that are a lot more effective than my friends could. So, we need to do something about him. Like I've been telling you we need to," she says, stepping away from him.

"Well, daggers don't work on him. I suppose you could desiccate him like you did before," he muses. "Having him stuck in a box for at least a century would be fair turnabout."

"You know, playing the screwed up family sympathy card doesn't work so well when you start talking about storing one of your siblings away for a hundred years," she tells him dryly.

"Anyway," she continues, ignoring his attempt to look wide-eyed and innocent. "Desiccating him would mean stopping a beating heart. And I won't do that. Not again."

"What a shame. What does our great mastermind have planned, then?" He asks. "Your last one nearly made Nik kill, but by all means…"

She glares at him and his half-tempted to snap a few bones at his condescending tone, but decides that it simply isn't worth the effort. Instead, she directs her attention on ways to get Klaus out of the picture.

"I could trap him somewhere for an indefinite amount of time," she says.

"Can you? All magic has limits," he responds.

"I took you down yesterday. I'm sure I can contain your brother with no problem," she replies.

"How did you do that, by the way? It certainly didn't feel like normal magic," he says.

_He knows about the Expression,_ she realizes. She wonders if he figured it out on his own or if Henri actually told him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bonnie replies with a shrug.

"Of course you don't." He smiles and invades her space once again. "Well, it looks like things are finally going to get interesting, little witch."

Bonnie's not naïve enough to think that once everything is said and done Kol himself won't pose some sort of problem.

She'll figure out how to deal with him as it came along.

_Easier said than done._

* * *

**A/N: So, I know I said things would pick up this chapter and I like to think that it did at least a little bit. I had a lot more planned for this chapter that would have definitely made it a little more exciting, but I feel like it just didn't fit in. But now, I can definitely say that a lot of stuff will be happening next chapter.**

**I'd also like to note that at the beginning of the chapter when I talked about raising the dead being one of the worst violations of nature, I didn't forget that the spirits let Bonnie bring Jeremy back to life once before. That will definitely be addressed later in this fic, but it will be a good long while before it is.**

**You're probably also wondering why Kol and Henri are working together when they don't seem to like each other. Henri will serve a bigger purpose later on and as that happens his story will unfold along with more in-depthness of just what's with his relationship with Kol.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries nor am I making any profit from this. Characters, etc. all belong to their respective owners.**

**A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who's been reviewing, favoriting, etc.! I really appreciate it!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

There's thirty-six unanswered text messages, thirty missed calls, and twenty-three voicemail messages on her phone.

Most of them were from Damon and she doesn't need to read or listen to them to know what they say. However, there are some from Caroline and Jeremy as well and with those she's not so sure she wants to know what they say.

She's imagining everything from confusion to understanding to anger and she's not sure what she wants from either of them.

Suddenly, her doorbell rings and Bonnie contemplates whether she wants to answer it or not.

Then, the doorbell is pressed repeatedly and Caroline starts yelling. "Bonnie Bennett, I know you're home! You've got forty-five seconds to open this door before I smash it to pieces and hunt you down!"

She would do it too.

"You know I'll do it!"

"Good morning to you too, Caroline," Bonnie says when she opens the door.

The blonde brushes past her and heads straight to the kitchen.

"Elena told me what happened yesterday…or some version of it, anyway, and I wanted to talk to you about," Caroline says as she pulls out the pint of cookie dough flavored Ben&Jerry's Bonnie had stashed in the fridge. "So, spill," she continues, pulling out two spoons and handing Bonnie one of them.

"I told her I didn't want anything to do with the cure anymore."

"I know that," the blonde says, rolling her eyes. "Really, Bon, you need to give me more than that."

"Do you know how they've been getting vampires for Jeremy to kill?" Bonnie asks Caroline. She looks down at the spoon in her hands, but makes no move for the ice cream Caroline was currently shoveling in.

"I know that Stefan was turning a bunch of criminals into vampires for Jeremy to kill. Really bad criminals, too, like serial killers and stuff, which I'm not saying is okay per se, but better than some innocent person, right?"

"That's the thing, though," Bonnie said. She began nervously tapping the spoon against one of her knuckles. "It is innocent people now."

"What?"

"Klaus and Damon have been turning random people into vampires to kill. Well, Klaus is turning them at least, but I doubt Damon is putting up a huge fight about it, though."

"Oh my God," Caroline said. It's almost comical how Caroline is sitting there, mouth agape and spoonful of ice cream slowly dripping back into the carton, but the entire situation is too fucked up for Bonnie to so much as quirk her lips upwards at the blonde's reaction.

"That's what sent me over the edge to tell Elena that I didn't want to help with cure anymore, but it's more than just that, Caroline," Bonnie continues.  
"It's just that…" she trails off and takes a deep breath. "Everything in me is telling me to not get the cure. I mean, everything that we have to go through for it? Shane's mass-murders, Jeremy on a vampire-killing spree, the possibility of that Silas creep waking up? I mean…don't you think that that's all a sign that we shouldn't be doing this?"

Caroline puts the spoon back in the carton and chews on her lip a little bit. "Okay, but what do we do about Elena? I mean, we can't just leave her sired to Damon!"

Bonnie sighs and puts the spoon down on her kitchen table. "I know. And that's what makes this whole situation so sticky. But maybe there's another way to break the sirebond? Something we haven't thought of or even considered? I don't know. I know Stefan and Damon and Elena all probably think I'm crazy, but…"

"Okay, let's forget about them for now. Let's focus on you. Are you okay?" Caroline asks. "Is there something else going on or…?"

"Everything's just such a mess. I really do wish this was all over," Bonnie replies. "But this cure…I just…I can't, Caroline."

"I'll be honest," Caroline says, setting the ice cream down on the counter. "I do think this cure is Elena's best chance, but you shouldn't have to do anything you don't want to. And, besides, you're always the one saving us, so if you really feel that strongly about it, I'll trust you on this."

Bonnie feels a knotting ball of emotion in her chest. She almost wants to tell Caroline everything else that's been going on like her shaky alliance with Kol. She keeps her mouth quiet, though.

Her phone lets out a chime, signaling a text message. She pulls it out to look to see who it's from. It's from Kol.

"Who's that from?" Caroline asks, picking the ice cream back up.

"Damon," Bonnie lies, sliding the phone back into her pocket, planning to read the text message later. It's not like she could tell Caroline that it's from Kol. "He's been blowing up my phone all day and all of last night. But I haven't actually answered…or listened to my voicemail…or looked at my text messages."

Caroline snorts. "Wise choice. This goes without saying, but Damon is pissed about what happened yesterday…not that you can't handle him 'cause you totally could, but he's such a pain in the ass, why waste your time unless you have to?"

Bonnie smiles at Caroline and they fall into a silence that's not exactly tense, but not exactly comfortable either.

"I know I won't gain weight or anything, but it'd make me feel like less of a pig if you actually ate some of this too," Caroline said around a mouthful of ice cream.

Bonnie let out a small laugh and reached to grab the small carton from the blonde vampire to get some ice cream for herself.

* * *

When Rudy enters the police station, he notices that Liz on her deputy seem a bit off today as if they were running on auto-pilot. He supposes he shouldn't find that too surprising, though, given everything that has been happening in Mystic Falls in just little more than a year.

Rudy isn't sure just what he's expecting when he comes face to face with Shane in that little interrogation room.

He knows the man is a manipulator and that he's good at it. He also knows that whatever the man has done to his daughter is far from easily fixable.

Still, he wants answers. And he wants them _now._

"Mr. Hopkins. I would say it's a surprise to see you, but…" Shane says pleasantly.

"Stop with the bullshit," Rudy says, cutting to the chase. "What did you do to my daughter?"

"She came to me for help, so I taught her an alternative form of magic—"

"I said, stop with the bullshit. Whatever you taught her…it's going to destroy her, isn't it?"

"That's why she needs me," Shane says. "I'm the only one that can help keep her calm and under control."

The entire time, the professor keeps an eerily calm look and all Rudy wants to do is smash his head repeatedly into a table for actually having the gall to act like he's helping Bonnie when all he has done is.

He's starting to feel like he made a big mistake in coming here in the first place. He would have been better off going to Abby again and coming up with a better plan to help Bonnie.

When he focuses back on Shane, the professor's eyes are boring into him and he's still as calm as ever.

"You're going to get me out of here, Rudy, because your daughter needs me."

* * *

She doesn't dare to look at Kol's text message until Caroline is gone. When she looks at it all there is is a time and a _Meet at my place first_.

Right as she's getting ready to leave to meet Kol and take care of Klaus for the time being, she hears a knock on the door.

She expects it to be Stefan or Damon to give her a lecture about what happened at Elena's house and then attempt to persuade her to follow their lead again.

Instead, it turns out to be Shane of all people.

"What are you doing here? How did you get out of jail?" Bonnie asks, dumbfounded. She grips the front door so hard that her knuckles turn white and she wants nothing more than to slam it in his face.

"That's not important," he says dismissively with his usual pleasant smile on his face. "Jeremy's has just a few vampires away from completing his mark, which means you need to be ready for what comes next."

Bonnie shakes her head. "No. I'm not doing anything. There's no way this cure is worth it and Silas—"

"It'll all be okay, Bonnie," he reassures her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You are in complete control, remember?" Her mind suddenly goes blank. "Now, here's what you'll do."

Bonnie still manages to show up at Kol's on time even with Shane causing a small detour.

"Ready for this?" she asks when he opens the door.

"Of course," he says with a grin.

The drive to his brother's house is silent and, while he's never been one for quiet, it does not particularly bother him.

When he looks at Bonnie, something seems different about her, but he can't quite put his finger on _what _this time. Watching all the twists and turns she's taken these past few days have been interesting and he can't deny that he's looking forward to seeing just how far she'll go.

When they reach the overly large mansion, Kol enters without bothering to knock. They get as far as the living room until they see any sign of Klaus.

"Kol. To what do I owe this displeasure?" Klaus asks. When he takes notice of Bonnie, he look genuinely surprised.

"What the hell is this?" Klaus asks.

"Well, I told you that I wasn't going to let any of you raise Silas," Kol says cheerfully. "And I meant it."

Klaus makes a move towards Kol, but finds himself trapped behind an invisible barrier. It takes him no time to figure out just what Bonnie did.

"When I get ahold of you, of _both _of you," he growls out. "I will rip _you,_" he points at Bonnie, "Apart limb from limb. And _you,_" he glares at Kol, "I will store you in a box longer than I did Finn. You'll be lucky if you ever see the light of day again."

Obviously not fazed by his brother's threats at all, Kol simply smirks and says, "See you later, Nik." He moves to leave, but finds an invisible barrier blocking his way.

"Bonnie…"

Her face is perfectly emotionless. Even her eyes were blank. "I had to get you out of the way."

He can feel the fury welling up in him, burning his insides like alcohol. Did she actually manage to fool him all along?

"You…"

She walks away, ignoring any subsequent threats from Kol and doesn't look back once.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so I'm sure some of you are thinking "How the eff is Kennett ever gonna get together if you keep putting in all these setbacks." All I can say is that I promise I have a plan, but certain things have to happen and it's a bit of a journey to get there.**

**Even though it's a slow build up, I promise that there will be a payoff and it will be worth it.**

**Thanks for reading!**


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